One of three founders of Connected Women Leaders, Hafsat Abiola is the president of Women in Africa Initiative, the foremost platform organizing the continent’s leading women into a force for sustainable development.

An economist with degrees from Harvard and Tsinghua; a pro-democracy activist who lost both parents to her country’s democracy struggle; and a former member of her state’s cabinet in charge of the Millennium Development Goals and trade and investment portfolios; she believes women’s equal engagement in the economy and governance systems at all levels will lead to a better world.